HUNDREDS OF Maoist guerrillas stormed a high-speed passenger train in eastern India yesterday and battled security forces until late into the evening.
Officials said one policeman from the Railway Protection Force was injured in the firefight after the New Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express, one of India’s premier commuter trains, was stopped by some 300 Maoists in eastern Bengal state. Waving red flags, the rebels blocked the tracks, took the driver and his assistant hostage and off-loaded passengers from the packed train before Railway Protection Force personnel travelling aboard opened fire.
A railway spokesman said security personnel had cordoned off the train and all passengers were safe before paramilitary personnel raised the siege and the train left for its destination.
Calling themselves the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, the Maoists were demanding the release of some of their arrested cadres. The group, comprising mostly dispossessed tribal people, have long been demanding police and government forces be recalled from the region and their jailed comrades be freed.
Maoist rebels, who are on the ascendant in 20 of India’s 29 provinces, regularly attack goods trains. They have even hijacked local passenger trains in remote areas before fleeing, emphasising the helplessness of state authorities and police to deter them.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh said recently the Maoists who run parallel administrations in more than 200 of India’s 603 administrative districts, levying taxes and dispensing vigilante justice through kangaroo courts, were the “biggest national security challenge” facing India.
Maoist violence has claimed more than 600 lives this year, with the rebels staging a series of raids in which large numbers of police and security personnel died.
The Maoists claim to be fighting for the rights of the rural poor. Officials accuse them of using intimidation and extortion to control impoverished villagers.
India’s federal administration recently labelled them a terrorist group, hoping this would bestow more enforcement powers on the security forces. Some 75,000 security forces personnel are being mobilised against the Maoists.
But they have won wide support from locals, mostly tribals, Dalits or lower-caste Hindus and landless villagers, who for decades have been exploited by the administration and now look upon the rebels as their saviours.
Many overseas corporations have opted out of Maoist-controlled areas, many of which are rich in natural resources.